Barack Obama: “These nominations reflect my commitment to ensuring that our country is represented by the best and brightest.”

They're meant to remind us of who we can be, to remind us of what's possible, so we can forge ahead.

The success of this experiment was never a given.

While we are non-partisan, we are not value-neutral. We have a point of view.

Every president here today, as different as we are, has tried our best to uphold the values that John McCain and Mitt Romney believed in no less than I did.